Premium-rate telephone numbers are telephone numbers that charge callers higher price rates for select services, including information and entertainment. A portion of the call fees is paid to the service provider, allowing premium calls to be an additional source of revenue for businesses. Tech support, psychic hotlines, and adult chat lines (e.g. dating and phone sex) are among the most popular kinds of premium-rate phone services. Other services include directory enquiries, weather forecasts, competitions and ratings televoting (especially relating to television shows). Some businesses, e.g. low-cost airlines, and diplomatic missions, such as the US Embassy in London or the UK Embassy in Washington, have also used premium-rate phone numbers for calls from the general public.
Premium calls are typically independent of the caller's area code. These telephone numbers are usually allocated based on a national telephone numbering plan that makes them easily distinguishable from non-premium numbers; telephone companies often offer their customers the option to block calls from these number ranges, and in some jurisdictions, are required by law to offer blocking services.
SMS (texting) also has a feature for premium rate services, however instead of standard telephone numbers, premium-rate texting uses so-called shortcodes, which are 4–6 digit numbers that work only for SMS.
Africa
Egypt In Egypt, premium rate numbers begin with the prefix 0900, and for mobile services it uses short numbers to call or to send SMS to (4 digits only).
South Africa In South Africa, premium rate SMS short codes are four or five digits long, starting with either '3' or '4'. Premium rate telephone services are regulated by The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and ranges from 0862 through 0869(increasing rates relating to the next digit after 086).
Asia Armenia In Armenia, premium numbers start with 900, followed by six digits.
Indonesia In Indonesia, premium numbers begin with 0809 and are marketed by Telkom as Japati, an acronym for Jaringan Pintar Nasional (National Smart Network). Due to the number's association with adult services (Telkom's dial-up Internet service, Telkomnet Instan at 080989999 being a major exception) premium-rate phone services have come under public scrutiny and regulatory crackdown, most notably in May 2015 following rash of spam text messages enticing mobile phone users to dial them.
Japan In Japan, premium rate telephone number service was currently known as "Navi-dial" and began with the prefix 0570 followed by six digits. The "DIAL Q2" service that's number had the prefix 0990 was ended operations in early 2013.
South Korea In South Korea, premium rate numbers start with the prefix 060 followed by 7 or 8 digits. Some consumers do not know that numbers starting with 060 are premium rate numbers because 060 is mistaken for one of long-distance area codes in Korea (there are 062, 061 and 063). They call back when they find that they miss a call to their mobile phones from a 060 number ending up paying for just making a call.
1588-#### and 1577-#### are not premium rate numbers per se. They are used by banks, insurance companies, nationwide restaurant chains, consumer electronics companies, online shopping malls and others for customer service and delivery order. In many cases, customers calling them are charged at a long-distance rate without knowing that they are making a long-distance call.
Vietnam In Vietnam, premium rate numbers start with 1900; premium rate SMS have 4 digits starting with 4,5,6,7,8 and the 2nd digit decides the price (except 1400 - 1409 with variable prices from 3000-18000 VND per sms, reserved for charity and 156, 5656, 1414 which are free).
Taiwan In Taiwan, premium rate numbers start with 0203, 0204 and 0209.
Mongolia In Mongolia, premium rate numbers start with 1900.
Europe
In many European countries, such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, it was common for organisations to operate customer service lines on premium-rate numbers using prefixes that fall outside the scope of the country's premium-rate number regulations. Therefore, in contrast to North America where customer service numbers are typically free of charge to the caller, consumers in Europe often used to pay a premium above the cost of a normal telephone call. The EU Consumer Rights Directive 2011/EU/83, which came into force on 13 June 2014, was intended to eliminate this pricing model, but the law's implementation and success varies widely from country to country.
BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications) maintains a detailed list of premium telephone number prefixes used within EU member states and territories.
Austria In Austria, the 0900 prefix is used for premium rate numbers that charge per minute and the 0901 prefix is used for premium rate numbers that charge by call. For adult content the prefix is 0930 for per minute tariffs and 0931 for event based tariffs.
Belgium In Belgium, premium rate numbers in Belgium have the area codes 090x. 0900, 0902, 0903, 0904 (per minute – from 0.25 to 2.00 EUR) 0906, 0907 (adult services – per minute – from 0.25 to 2.00 EUR) 0905, 0909 (per call – from 0.25 to 31.00 EUR) Call limited to 10 mins.
Croatia In Croatia, the 060 prefix is used for premium rate numbers for non-erotic and 064 prefix is used for erotic services.
Czech Republic In the Czech Republic, numbers starting with 900, 906, 909 and 976 are premium rate numbers. Other numbers beginning with "9" are allocated to certain organizations, such as 972 (Czech railways), 973 (Ministry of Defense), 974 (Ministry of Interior), 95x (other Ministries, government organizations, certain commercial subjects), 910 (VoIP nongeographic nomadic numbers).
Denmark In Denmark, premium rate numbers have the area codes 9013, 9050 and 9055/9056. The 9013 is for helplines and chat services, the 9050 (paid per call) is for TV Call-in Shows and the 9055/9056 codes are for charitable organizations.
However, the regulation is very strict. TDC Holding A/S is the only carrier offering these numbers, with MCXess and kwak Telecom offering numbers internationally. The regulator offers a shortened English regulation.
Finland In Finland, numbers starting with 0100, 0200, 0202, 0209, 0300, 0600, 0700, 0750, 0751, 0752, 0753, 0757, 0759, 100, 106 and 107 are premium rate numbers. The 0700 series is for entertainment, while 0600 is for services. Several other premium codes exist, sometimes confusing consumers, who may not know if they are calling a premium number or not.
The Finnish Consumers' Association has repeatedly denounced the use of premium rate numbers.
France
In France, numbers starting with 08xx (International : +33 8(...)) are special rate numbers. They range from toll free numbers (080x) to premium numbers (08Rx) (R from 1 to 9) (called Audiotel by France Telecom). There are also various moderately priced numbers (from about 0.03 to 0.15 €/minute) in the 081x and 082x ranges. Most of these numbers are not reachable from outside France.
There are also special 4 digits numbers (national speed dial) in the form of 3xxx, for which billing rules can be the ones from any 08xx number, to the provider's choice.
The split rule between different premium rate numbers is not clearly defined (premium rate information numbers and premium rate entertainment numbers).
The regulator (ARCEP, previously ART) had issued a range for Telephony over xDSL in the 087x range, which might confuse consumers, as calls to these numbers are billed as local calls nationwide. Starting 20 December 2005, these have been changed to 09xx numbers, which are dedicated to VoIP. All 087x numbers have been converted to 09xx numbers by 15 December 2008.
Germany In Germany, Dedicated premium-rate lines nowadays begin with the prefix 0900, the infamous 0190 prefix having been terminated on December 31, 2005. However, some premium services also use lines with the prefix 0137, which is supposedly reserved for planned simultaneous call-in events, such as televoting.
The digit after 0900 decides the kind of service offered, unlike 0190, where it determined the pricing. This is called offline billing and causes problems for coin telephones (where they are restricted entirely) or prepaid services. These are -1 for information, -3 for entertainment and -5 for "miscellaneous" (mostly adult entertainment). 0900-9 is reserved for dialers, which are heavily regulated, or to do payments by phone.
Greece In Greece, Premium numbers start with 901 (general purpose) and 909 (adult-only services), followed by seven digits.
Hungary In Hungary, 06-90 and 06-91 followed by six digits are common premium-rate numbers. SMS-based services can also use short numbers such as 1781 and 17632.
Ireland In Ireland, premium rate numbers begin with the prefix 15. These numbers provide a range of services from weather forecasting to adult dating. Adult type services shall only be provided using the access codes 1598 or 1599, with adult services of a sexual nature being restricted to the latter. Adult authentication is required from your network operator to access these numbers.
All 15x numbers have officially quoted rates, set by the prefix, although telecom providers can charge an additional fee for carrying the call. 151x numbers are charged on a per-call basis, all others on a per-minute basis. In general the prices increase as the prefix number increases, within the call type range.
Comreg is a body which monitors the premium rate services industry in Ireland. Although an independent body, it can impose sanctions, ban advertisements and ban services offered by providers. It is funded by a levy on providers.
Italy In Italy, There are many premium rate numbers, including anything starting with 89 using different fares. 0878 is also a premium-rate number, reserved for polls run via telephone.
Latvia In Latvia, premium numbers are with prefix (+371) 90
Netherlands In the Netherlands, premium numbers start with 0900 (general purpose), 0906 (erotic entertainment) and 0909 (games and lotteries) followed by four or seven digits. When one dials such a nulnegenhonderdnummer it is enforced by law that the caller gets informed about the per minute rate. The Opta is the governing body that regulates premium rate services in the Netherlands. Starting June 2014 any 0900 number used for customer service purposes is regulated so that it is free to the caller, for if they buy the product, they also buy the right to contact consumer service.
North Macedonia In North Macedonia, premium-rate telephone numbers range from 0500-0599 (most common prefixes used for these telephone numbers are 500 and 550. The following format for dialing a premium telephone number in North Macedonia: +389 5xx x xx xx).
Norway In Norway, any telephone number starting with 82 (mostly 820/829) is charged at premium rates (82x xx xxx).
Portugal 607 - Pull opinion, 9 tariffs up to 3.28 Eur per minute (premium rates) 707 – Entertainment and some business (€0.25 + VAT / minute) 760 - Fixed tariff for all calls (€0.60 + VAT per call) 761 - Entertainment (€1 + VAT per call) 808 – Business and marketing (cost of a local land-line call)
In Portugal, the VAT for calls is 23%, except in Madeira, where it is 22%, and in Azores, where it is 18%.
Poland In Poland, numbers starting with 70, 30 and 40 are reserved for premium-rate services. 700, 701, 707 and 300 are "general" premium-rate services (usually charged per minute), 707 and 400 are assigned for tele-voting, mass-calls and so on (usually charged per call). Other numbers (702-706, 709, 301–309, 401-409) are reserved for future assignments. There are some other numbers in "shared costs" or "dial-up services" ranges, which are charged at a quite high rates (comparable with lower cost premium rates): 8015, 8016, 207, 208.